Means for distributing tobacco mass



Sept. 27, 1955 K. E. GRANSTEDT 2,718,390

MEANS FOR DISTRIBUTING TOBACCO MASS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 12, 1952 Sept. 27, 1955 K. E. GRANSTEDT MEANS FOR DISTRIBUTING TOBACCO MASS 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 12, 1952 Sept. 27', 1955 K. E. GRANSTE-DT 7 2,718,890

MEANS FOR DISTRIBUTING TOBACCO MASS Filed May 12, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent Ofiice 2,718,890 Patented Sept. 27, 1955 V 2,718,899 MEANS FOR DISTRIBUTING TOBACCOYMASS Karl Erik Granstedt, Stockholm, Sweden, assignor to Arenco Aktiebolag, Stockholm, Sweden, a Swedish joint-stock'company Application May 12, 1952, Serial No. 287,377 Claims priority, application Sweden May 22, 1951 1 Claim. (Cl. 131-108) This invention relates to a device for distributing tobacco .mass, particularly for the portioning of tobacco mass in the manufacture of cigar bunches or other tobacco products.

It is an object of the invention to make improved provisions for removal of tobacco mass of a uniform and separable condition from a storage reservoir to be further handled, for instance in the manufacture of cigar fillers.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for continuously presenting the tobacco mass in a storage reservoir in a loose, uniform and readily separable condition to a gripper, so as to ensure that said gripper will fetch required portions of the tobacco mass.

Still another object of the invention consists in the provision of means increasing the capacity of said distributing device.

With these and other objects in view, the invention comprises the combination and arrangement of elements hereinafter fully described and set forth in the claim appended hereto.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an elevational side view of one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is an elevational sectional view taken on the line II-II of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a detail side elevation on an enlarged scale of a portion of the device shown in Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the tobacco reservoir has two oppositely disposed and spaced apart discs 2 which are each attached to a horizontal, rotatably journalled shaft 1. Each of the discs 2 has a cylindrical flange 3 and said flanges are separated from each other. At the outer sides. of the discs 2 are immovable, upright side walls 5 mounted on a frame 8 and carrying the shafts 1 rotatably journalled therein. The discs 2 are each imparted a stepwise rotary movement by a cam disc 7 secured to a shaft 6. Thus, ashaft 9 is rotatably mounted in the frame 8. To the shaft 9 is, at opposite sides of the frame 8 pivoted a bell crank lever, the downwardly directed arm 16 of which is actuated by a tension spring 10 and carries a roller 11 riding on one of the cam discs 7. The upper arms 12 of the bell crank levers are each pivoted to the lower end of a rod 13. The upper end of each rod 13 is by a pin 14 pivoted to an arm 17 rotatably mounted on one of the shafts 1. On each pin 14 is rotatably mounted a spring loaded pawl 18 which meshes with a ratchet wheel 15 secured to one of the shafts 1. By reciprocating the arms 17 and thereby also the pawls 18 the ratchet wheels 15 will be rotated stepwise whereby also the shafts 1 and their discs 2 will rotate stepwise in the direction of the arrow (Fig. 1). When retracting the arms 17 the ratchet wheels 15 and, consequently, also the discs 2 are retained by spring loaded pawls 42.

The inwardly projecting flanges 3 of the discs 2 have interior ribs 54 provided with grooves 20 which are parallel to the shafts 1. In the grooves 20 are rod shaped impellers 21 reciprocally displaceable. For their movements in the grooves 20, the impellers 21 have pins 22 which project into curved grooves 53 in the cylindrical flanges 23 of the immovable walls 5. An arcuate plate 50 is secured to the flanges 23 and forms a bottom of the central portion of the tobacco reservoir. Between the flanges 23 and the edges 51 and 52 of the plate 50 is an opening 4 through which a gripper 26 can move into and out of the reservoir. In accordance with the inclination of the tobacco mass to move upwardly in the rotary direction the plate edge 52 is located higher than the plate edge 51.

Tobacco portions are fetched from the reservoir by the gripper 26 mounted on a lever 27. The lever 27 is turnably mounted on a spindle 34 which is secured to brackets 32 on the side walls 5 and the spindle 34 has a rearwardly extending arm to which is pivoted a rod 61. The rod 61 is also pivoted to an arm 62 which is secured to a shaft 63 rotatably mounted in the frame 8. To the shaft 63 is secured another arm 64 carrying a roller which rides on a cam disc 66 secured to the shaft 6. The leg 26a of the gripper is secured to a pin 28 which is rotatably mounted in the lever 27. An arm 29 secured to the pin 28 is by a pin 33 pivoted to one end of a rod 30 the other end of which is by a pin 31 pivoted to an arm 55 which is secured to the spindle 34. The distance between the pins 31 and 33 is equal to the distance between the pin 28 and the spindle 34 and the distance between the pins 28 and 33 is equal to the distance between the pin 31 and the spindle 34. By this arrangement the gripper 26 will always remain suspended vertically when the rod 61 moves up and down to move the gripper into and out of the tobacco reservoir. The gripper will not contact with the impellers 21 since the grooves 53 have such curvatures that the impellers will be held laterally out of the path of movement of the gripper.

A short arm 35 is secured to the pin 28 and provided with a rotatable pin 67 to which is secured a toothed segment 36. The leg 26]) of the gripper is secured to the pin 67. The toothed segment 36 meshes with another toothed segment 37 which is rotatably mounted on the pin 28 and secured to an arm 39 which is rotatably mounted on the pin 28. The arm 39 is pivoted to one end of a rod 40 the other end of which is pivoted to the one arm 41a of a bell crank lever 41 which is rotatably mounted on the spindle 34 and the other arm 41b of which is pivoted to the upper end of a rod 43. The rod 43 is at its lower end pivoted to the one arm 45 of a bell crank lever which is rotatably mounted on a spindle 44 and the other arm 46 of which carries a roller 47. A tension spring 48 connected to the arm 45 holds the rollers 47 in engagement with a cam disc 49 secured to the shaft 6. By this arrangement the gripper 26 will be opened and closed at appropriate moments, namely when fetching tobacco portions in the reservoir and when delivering them, for example to a bunch making machine.

The hubs 24 of the discs 2 are conical and extend relatively far into the central portion of the tobacco reservoir. In the embodiment as illustrated they project inwardly as much as the flanges 3 and 23. When the discs 2 rotate the impellers 21 follow them by a circular motion and convey tobacco ma's s upwardly from the bottom of the reservoir until the tobacco particles have been moved so far upwards that they drop onto the tobacco mass in the reservoir so that the tobacco mass will be stirred. But this action might be ineffective since the rotating tobacco mass has a tendency to separate laterally into an outer portion of larger particles and a central portion consisting of smaller particles. This undesirable separation will be counteracted by the elevated tobacco particles dropping onto the hubs 24 which act as guides causing the tobacco particles to move into the central portion of the reservoir, that is, the space between the discs 2. Furthermore, the conical hubs 24 will assist the gripper 26 in fetching unia form tobacco portions because they serve as lateral supports for the tobacco mass at the zone in the reservoir at which the gripper is introduced into and penetrates the tobacco mass. Still another improvement gained by the presence of the hubs 24 consists in that the capacity of the reservoir will be increased materially. Thus, since the hubs 24 convey the tobacco mass inwardly the Width of the flanges 3 and, consequently, the width of the'entire reservoir can be increased materially. This involves that the reservoir needs not to be refilled as repeatedly-as a reservoir lacking the conical hubs.

I claim:

Apparatus -for separating tobacco portions from a quantity of tobacco, having a container and a gripper, two rotatable cup-shaped members provided withimpellers beingarranged in said container and said members being located according to a common horizontal axis with their openings turned towards each other and with an interspace into which said gripper can be introduced, characterised in that each cup-shaped member 'is provided with an inwardly tapered hub of such length that it extends substantially to the planewhich passes'through the References Cited in the filc of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain Oct. 5,1936 

